Wire transfer ONLY!

Here's what you do - go to your bank and open a separate account, put the minimum amount in there to keep you from being charged fees. Then you give the buyer THAT account number, not your regular one. Once the wire goes through, you transfer the funds over to your regular account. This way, you are only risking the small amount that's left. In my case, it's $300 minimum. Keep that separate account open in case you buy or sell another car.

I've done this a couple of times, most recently a few weeks ago when I wired money to a guy for a car I bought.

I sold a car on Bring A Trailer in late February. The guy was old school and sent me a cashier's check from his bank. My bank was very suspicious of it since they have seen an uptick in fraudulent cashier's checks.They actually keep a database of pictures of cashier's checks and the buyer's bank had recently changed their checks, so my bank was very suspicious. They ended up holding half the funds back for 10 days (7 business days). The buyer was bent, but what could I do?

Bottom line is, if you are remote from the buyer, the only way to do it is a wire.